Tide Initial Analysis

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     Tide Initial Analysis


Narrative- how a story is told

Ideology- ideas and beliefs of the producer of the media product

Anchorage - where a meaning is 'weighed down' by a producer using media language. E.g caption under an image can completely change and reinforce the meaning

Polysemy- many meanings

Direct mode of address - where a media product directly talks to the audience

Tide Analysis

  • 50s traditional beauty stereotypes
    • women wearing makeup
    • hourglass figure
    • 50s hair
    • selection of a white woman as the main model reinforces a beauty standard of white women
  • womens "love" for the product
    • love hearts
    • reinforces the stereotype of women doing all of the domestic jobs
    • creates a loving relationship which arguable replaces the husband role
    • advert presents sexist ideologies around women
  • use of the colour red
    • bold colour and makes the text and the Tide stand out
      • words like "cleanest", "whitest" and "brightens" are all things which would attract the TA to buy Tide and makes it stand out from their competitors
  • direct address
    • "you women" directly addresses the audience and makes them feel intimidated
      • also categories women as property and submissive, and all the same
      • deindividualization
    • explicit depiction of women cleaning 
  • looking up to the Tide makes her look inferior
    • in the 50s women were inferior to everything, so she can't look down on anything
  • women in the bottom right are bonding over Tide, acting as a social connector (Personal Relationship from Blumerz and Katz Uses and Gratifications Theory)
  • colour scheme
    • use of primary colours make it a basic product, yet essential - connotations of cleanliness
    • straight forward use of red, white and blue - colours of the USA flag creates a patriotic worldview
    • red also symbolises love, romance and passion (along with the love hearts)
  • mise-en-scene
    • MES of the love hearts suggests love, romance and affection
  • representation of women
    • post-war when women have just spent the last 6 years rationing, but also spent the time cooking and cleaning
    • producer is constructing a stereotypical representation of the ideal women. Anchorage of the American flag reinforces this
    • housewife is portrayed as an ideal woman. 
      • reinforced through her fitting beauty standards of the 50s
    • box positioned above her
  • text and lexis
    • "tides got what womens want" has connotations of exclusivity and suggests ALL women desire this product. The inference of this is that if you don't like the product, you are not what you are supposed to be.
  • post-war
    • housework was promoted as a patriotic duty and almost resembles propaganda
    • inspirational imagery to inspire women to
    • women who had been working supporting the advert (e.g making ammunition or agriculture) were suddenly encouraged to get back to housework in post-war america. This advert reflects this ideology
  • representation of cleaning
    • seen to be brave and noble, encoded through the proairetic code of the woman hugging the soap in an assertive war
  • relationships
    • Lack of any men, husbands or male figures in the advert, suggesting a post-war setting where men are still recovering
    • housewife romantically attached to the box of tide. Reinforced through a number of codes, including "its got what women want"
    • comedic association with the woman and the romantic relationship with the box provides a humorous mode of address which may provide a diversion from the trauma of the war
    • the box may represent a child instead, and may represent a more wholesome relationship with children
      • reinforces the stereotype that womens lives are about cooking, cleaning and children
  • boxes positioning makes the housewife look inferior and the box seem superior
  • sexism
    • examples include that womens are the sole cleaners, "no wonder you women " (direct mode of address) 


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